Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices for facilitating the sealing of perimeters of slide-out rooms and other structures associated with recreational vehicles (RVs) and other mobile products.
Background Art
The general concept of employing means for facilitating sealing of joints in the construction of structures such as towable trailers, motorized recreational vehicles, buildings (particularly metal buildings) and similar structures is known in the prior art. For many of these types of structures, a substantially rigid frame is provided, which consists of structural support members, such as studs. The structural support members of the frame support and mount walls on the exterior of the frame. The walls are formed as pre-fabricated panels placed on the exterior of the frame formed by the structural support members. Corners are formed at the junctures of adjacent panels lying in different, but typically perpendicular planes. Also, typically, one of the adjacent panels is intended to overlap the adjacent support members by the thickness of the adjacent panel. In this manner, the adjacent panels lie in perpendicular planes which meet at a butt joint. Concepts associated with technologies associated with corner rail extrusions are disclosed in Goode, U.S. Pat. No. 7,735,891 issued Jun. 15, 2010.
Resilient seals are often placed along the abutting edges of parts, and one such application is found in the field of mobile living quarters having slide-out rooms. A seal is commonly placed along the interface between the slide-out room and the opening in the sidewall of the mobile living quarters to prevent water, debris, and excessive air drafts from entering the interior of the mobile living quarters from the outside. This seal often includes two sub-parts, a bulb seal and a wiper seal, each extending along a side of the opening. The bulb seal is usually placed on either the exterior edge of the sidewall or the interior edge of a flange portion of the slide-out room wall to form a resilient seal between the sidewall and the flange portion of the slide-out room when the room is closed. A separate wiper seal is usually placed along the edge of the sidewall and flexibly protrudes against the adjacent sidewall of the slide-out room so as to be in constant contact with the sidewall at all positions of the room between its open and closed positions. A typical example of such an arrangement can be seen in U.S Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0078634 A1, published Jun. 27, 2002. A problem with this type of seal arrangement is that the bulb seal and wiper seal must be mounted separately.
Another known seal arrangement used for the slide-out room includes a pair of bulb seals on opposite sides of a mounting portion, and a wiper seal protruding from an adjacent side of the mounting portion between the bulb seals, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,016. The mounting portion is mounted to the edge of the sidewall of the mobile living quarters between the two opposite sides with a clip such that the wiper seal maintains flexible contact with the sidewall of the slide-out room. The two bulb portions contact one of two flange portions at either end of the slide-out room at both its open and closed positions to create a seal. This arrangement, however, may not be suitable for easy adaptation to be installed on different slide-out room configurations due to its unitary construction. Another problem is that, after long usage, the seal may disengage from the clip and fall off. If the seal falls off the clip, it can be difficult to access the clip for reinstalling the seal without taking the slide out room completely out of the wall.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a multi-piece room seal that can be easily adapted for installation on different room configurations. It would also be desirable for the seal to be easily assembled on the exterior of the sidewall during installation to provide a single seal portion providing both a wiper seal for wiping against the sidewall of the slide-out room and a bulb seal for contacting the flange around the outside edge of the slide-out room when it is closed.
One prior art reference directed to the concepts associated with seals for slide-out rooms is Ksiezopolki, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,590 issued Nov. 22, 2005. For purposes of background art, the reference is duplicated in substantial part in the following paragraphs and in FIGS. 1-4. Referring now to prior art drawings in FIGS. 1-4, a mobile living quarters 10, such as a recreational vehicle, is shown having a slide-out room 12. Mobile living quarters 10 include a sidewall 14 having an opening 16 through which the slide-out room 12 shifts. Slide-out room 12 is of well known form including an interior space generally defined by four sidewalls 18 and an end wall 20. Slide-out room 12 fits through opening 16 and extends perpendicular to sidewall 14 such that its end wall 20 is adjacent the sidewall of the mobile living quarters when the slide-out room is retracted and spaced from the sidewall when the slide-out room is extended. A flange 22 extends outwardly from the peripheral edge of end wall 20 of the slide-out room to overlap with sidewall 14 of the mobile living quarters when slide-out room 12 is retracted.
A resilient seal 24 is located along the periphery of opening 16 to prevent dirt, water, and other materials from passing from the exterior of the mobile living quarters 10 to its interior. Seal 24 may be made of any sufficiently resilient material such as thermoplastic elastomer. Seal 24 includes a generally flat mounting portion, or clip portion, 26 with a lip 27 fitted about the edge of sidewall 14 and a wiper seal portion 28 protruding transversely from the mounting portion toward sidewall 18 of the slide-out room. Wiper seal portion 28 is a flexible, generally planar section with its distal end opposite mounting portion 26 in resilient contact with sidewall 18 such that the wiper seal is flexed against the sidewall to maintain an effective seal with the sidewall at all times during extension or retraction of the slide-out room. Seal 24 further includes a bulb seal portion 30 having a bulb part 33 and a clip part 35 which is slidably connected to mounting portion 26.
Mounting portion 26 includes oppositely extending, rail-like tabs 36, 38 which form a tongue 44 separated from the body of the mounting portion by a groove 46. Clip part 35 of bulb seal portion 30 includes tabs 32, 34 which form a groove 42 defined in part by opposing flanges 40. When mounting portion 26 and clip part 35 are connected together, tongues 44 fits into grooves 42. Tabs 32, 34, 36, 38 all extend lengthwise along seal 24 such that, once fitted together, bulb seal portion 30 may be slid along the length of mounting portion 26, and are flexible enough to allow them to snap past each other for assembly. Alternatively, clip part 35 of bulb seal portion 30 may be slid into mounting portion 26 from an end of the seal 24. Preferably, seal 24 is constructed such that mounting portion 26 is more rigid than wiper portion 28, and such that web 31 and tabs 32, 34 are more rigid than bulb part 33.
To install seal 24 onto the mobile living quarters about opening 16, pressure tape 52 having adhesive on both sides is applied to the exterior side of sidewall 14 along the edge of the opening where mounting portion 26 is to be attached. Mounting portion 26 is then located along the exterior edge of opening 16 in the sidewall 14 of the mobile living quarters by abutting lip 27 against the edge of the opening with tabs 36, 38 extending outwardly from the exterior side of sidewall 14 and wiper seal portion 28 extending toward sidewall 18 of the slide-out room. Next, pressure is applied to mounting portion 26 to press the mounting portion against pressure tape 52 to adhere the mounting portion to the sidewall. Fasteners 50 are then inserted through mounting portion 26 into sidewall 14 to firmly secure the mounting portion to the sidewall. Fasteners 50 are preferably screws driven through mounting portion 26 in the space between tabs 36, 38 so as to be hidden behind bulb seal portion 30 when in its mounted position. Next, clip part 35 of bulb seal portion 30 is mounted to mounting portion 26 by either snap fitting grooves 42 about tongues 44 or sliding the bulb seal portion at its groove about the tongue of the mounting portion from one end of the mounting portion. Bulb seal portion 30 is then adjusted in location along mounting portion 26 by sliding the bulb seal portion along the mated tongue 44 and groove 42 connection to its desired final location relative to mounting portion 26. Bulb seal portion 30 may be secured in its final position along mounting portion 26 by placing a fastener 48, preferably a screw, at an angle through only the internal web 31 of the bulb seal portion and the mounting portion near the end of the seal section. Fastener 48 preferably does not penetrate the bulb part 33 of bulb seal 30 in order to maintain a better seal with room flange 22. Bulb seal portion 30 may be subsequently replaced by removing fasteners 48 and installing a new section of bulb seal portion without having to replace the wiper portion.
Seal 24 may be easily adapted to fit to different slide-out room configurations by cutting to any necessary length. A variety of different corner configurations in the opening 16 may be easily adapted to by cutting the bulb seal portion 30 to a different length than the mounting portion 26, and the wiper seal portion 28 may be cut to a third length if necessary. A variety of different gaps between the mobile living quarter's sidewall 14 and the slide-out room sidewalls 18 may be easily adapted to by adjusting the lateral position of the mounting portion 26 relative to the sidewall 14 or trimming back the wiper seal portion 28. By mounting the mounting portion 26 and the bulb seal portion 30 to the exterior side of sidewall 14, subsequent repair and replacement of worn seal parts may be easily performed without having to remove the slide out room 12 from the opening 16 in wall 14.
In general, a number of the seal systems being used for slide-out rooms, utilize a semi-rigid plastic jacket as a “base element” to build a sealing system. Many of these known systems offer the relatively same physical configurations, with respect to the overall dimension of the wipe height, and bulb heights. However, a number of these known systems suffer some common disadvantages. For example, even with the use of a corner piece, many of these systems cannot provide a single, continuous seal around the perimeter of the slide-out room (in this case, the term “perimeter” means the sides and top of the slide-out room opening, excluding the bottom portion of the opening). That is, the known systems are required to have parts which will somehow splice together or simply overlap, but again do not provide for a single continuous seal.
With respect to a number of these known systems, the structure and function of the jacket instruction results in certain disadvantages. For example, the use of these jackets can result in the creation of a gap which is formed when there is an attempt to compress the jacket over the sidewall of an RV or some other vehicle. That is, the shoulders of the jacket are typically wider than the wall. Further, the legs of the jacket will “angle in” so as to create a compression of the edge of the sealing lip. Such a design essentially opens a gap from the shoulder, down to the sealing lip. Such a gap creates a potential leak path, when the same is installed. This is a substantial problem, particularly with respect to the vertical installation on the sidewalls.
To date, a D-bulb has been the ideal solution for sealing all windows, baggage doors, entry doors and also on slide-out seals. The seals have been made of sponge EPDM, solid EPDM and thermoplastics such as TPE and TPV. Despite the material that these are made of, the D-bulbs have inherent flaws, such as the following:                1. The seal relies on one contact point. If not compressed enough, the seal will allow wind and water to “slide” over the bulb, as shown in FIG. 26.        2. The “D” profile doesn't always compress straight down and the bulb tends to shift. This can open up the seal for compression failure or cause accelerated wear.        3. If the “D” profile has to bend or follow a 90 degree turn to the side, the profile will pucker and distort, and not create a seal.        4. The “D” shape has to fold into itself to compress. If you try and use a higher durometer (i.e., hardness) to improve the wear, the harder the seal is to compress.        5. If the seal is not compressed all the way flat (i.e., line to line or top to bottom), the higher the wind and water force, the more likely the seal is to leak. The seal cannot accommodate for pressure change to a great extent.        6. On a vertical application, a “D” profile allows water to build up along the sealing edge and run back and forth until it finds a way to pass. That is, the radius top allows the water to flow to the sealing point when applied to an application where the profile will be vertical. The water can run over the radius and gather along the sealing edge and run back and forth until the water finds a way to seep.        